Sea of Ugandan culinary splendour

Harriet James @harriet86jim 

I know a few friends who travel just for the food experience, but for me food always finds me where I am.

I eat only when hungry, or when the  food is enticing, as was the case with the legendry Abunuasi  who once cooked ugali and ate it with aroma from his neighbour’s home. 

During a recent trip to Uganda, I sampled a few of their delicacies and learnt about their culture. One meal that you can never miss on their tables is matoke (plantains).

How can it be the matoke republic without their main staple food? It’s like going to Kisumu and not sampling fish or travelling to France and not having a taste of their croissants. 

Sometimes known as matooke or Ibitoke, matoke, this is Ugandan’s favourite meal, which is sometimes prepared by steaming the green, unripe bananas while still unpeeled or peeled and then steamed.

The steaming is done in big, broad banana tree leaves and when you open the leaves, you get a mini facial of banana steam with a smell so great it fills the house. 

Afterwards the plantains are mashed and eaten. The third version is when it’s fried with onions, tomatoes and a little spice is added to it.

This is called katogo, the traditional Ugandan breakfast, which will leave you full for the rest of the day. I hear that this is also the cure for hangover for those who enjoy exploring the nightlife in this place. 

Matoke dominates

Another version, which was influenced by the Indians who have made the country their home, has the fruit made into a curry with lots of spices and pilipili (chilli) in it.

One thing, before I forget is that Ugandans spend hours in the kitchen cooking. Much thought is placed in the preparation of food something that I never do while at home. 

And when Ugandans eat, they spread a mat and sit like the Waswahili from the Coast.

A shocking experience was when a young girl knelt to serve me food. I immediately told her to rise, received my food and told her webale (thank you).

No wonder our Kenyan men are xx running wild when they meet the women from this place. I was also relieved that I didn’t have to use the cutlery but used my hands to eat the sumptuous meal.  

One time we were at a hotel with my tour guide, Simon Singiza after taking a tour at Gadaffi Mosque and I asked him what would happen if Uganda had a shortage of matoke. He said while it was their staple meal, other options include rice and ugali (called posho here). 

Seeing that I missed ugali and to break the monotony of having matoke, my hosts prepared it for me, but gave me with nicely made beans.

I’m always used to ugali and sukumawiki with a little bit of beef or fried eggs but never grains.

 Again, you can find that in one serving, they might add ugali, matoke and rice in small portions, which was another shock for me.

Back at home, we only eat one option, so it’s either rice or ugali or matoke, but not all in one plate, unless its buffet at an event.

Noticing my surprise, they promised to always ask me whether I desired either or one of the options. Their meat portions are also large in comparison to ours!

Groundnut sauce

You also notice the generous portions when you eat their pilau or meat stew dishes, something that depicts how Ugandans love to live large and are aware of the abundance of food in their country. The soils are so fertile that most regions  don’t use fertilisers to boost yields. 

There’s something else called the groundnut sauce or g-nut sauce. Ugandans can’t live without the sweet red peanuts, added to almost every dish.

It makes food yummy and rich and they add it in sweet potatoes, roasted fish as well as matoke.

 Talking of roasted fish, for the first time I was served roasted fish with groundnut sauce and rice.

I hesitated because I wasn’t sure how that was going to react in my stomach, but being in Rome, I decided to do as the Romans do. I ate and to my surprise, it all turned out okay. 

Rolex is another signature meal that you should never leave Uganda without tasting. It is like our chapatti only that one adds an omlette along with onions, tomato, cabbage and sometimes  minced meat. It is then wrapped or topped up in a chapatti. 

While we have our mutura, Ugandans have muchomo (street meat). It comes from a Swahili word, choma—to roast – and it can be anything from liver, chicken, pork chunks or meat and they serve it with gonja, which is roasted sweet plantains, which can stand as a snack on its own as well.